Lee and I finally arrived in Italy on 29th Oct. The city, Ravenna, sounds very stylish and Italian. It took only an hour by flight. We got the cheapest tickets, so I had to pay for the coffee on the flight. (I was't aware of this! lol)

Leonardo, who is organizing this tournament, came to pick us up. Getting in his car and greeting him and his girlfriend nicely, I could feel I was beginning to relax. The conversation was flowing naturally, and then I started to make several questions which I had prepared.

As he mentioned, there are not so many Go players so far, so on the strongest one is 3d. When I made questions I felt that Leo was ashamed of this fact. But I think less people just means it has the potential to grow. In Italy, each year about 15 tournaments, small and big, are thrown. However it is hard to define which is the prime one, because Italy is a big country and has lots of cities.

There are some interesting historical facts for each city. For example, Venice is well known for their salt production. However there were some problems a long time ago. Ravenna was the rival to Venice; they joined the salt market.

Consequently, only salt produced by Venice, or salt passing through Venice, could be exchanged in northern Italy, and Venice was thus able to raise prices by as much as 80 percent against their southern rival, Ravenna. Because MONOPOLIZING trade was more profitable than producing.

Seeing the nice guys from venice I was glad to meet them. Walking the last way to the car, I felt like some sequence in a movie, with the stone street, lights, roman houses... This is Italy.

- the first day -

Sunny day. A great sightseeing day with Leo and Angela.

6PM, Giving a lecture on a game between two of the participants. I've been giving many lectures since June, and I was always obviously awkward with it. But I didn't feel awkward this time. I actually do not know why. Just one thing I tried to do was to make the atmosphere smooth, keen, and funny. Speaking nicely, in detail, with smiles and gestures - actually I wouldn't do this as well as I want even if I say it in Korean. But I think I'll do this better in English someday.. (hope so..) 

Before the prize giving, I got interviewed by Angela and a guy from Venice also named Leo. They asked me a lot questions about Go and my life. Thinking about the questions, I looked back on my life and thought about the present and future. I thought, maybe I would be just fine if I would be a good teacher.
 
Then came the prize giving time. I got a chance to give the prize in person, and then we took pictures of us all together.

I want to say thanks to Angela and Leo. They helped us a lot in Italy. :)